Posts Tagged ‘Telestream’

Transcoding and workflow vendor Telestream announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Genstar Capital, a San Francisco-based private equity firm that manages funds with total capital commitments of over $3 billion and targets investments focused on selected sectors within the financial services, software, industrial technology, and healthcare industries.

Telestream will continue to operate as an independent entity, and its existing management team will continue with the company in their current roles.

Thoma Bravo said in a statement that since it bought the company, Telestream saw “incredible growth on several fronts,” thanks to new product launches, strategic M&A, and expanding its executive and sales team to drive further growth. “Thoma Bravo worked in partnership with management over our three year ownership period to invest in the business, make acquisitions and accelerate the company’s growth,” said Holden Spaht, a managing partner at Thoma Bravo. “The company today is a clear leader in the digital video space with the deepest set of products and services in the market.”

Castles issued an upbeat statement about the deal, and telegraphed he believes that under Genstar, Telestream might continue to use strategic M&A and become an industry consolidator.

“Genstar’s mid-market focus and deep expertise in the software industry will enable Telestream to further accelerate our growth,” said Castles. “Over the past several years, Telestream has experienced its most significant growth. We look forward to our new partnership with Genstar as we increase our investment in existing products, accelerate our reach into new customer verticals and fuel our next phase of development through additional M&A activity. Our product portfolio and business models are well suited for the Genstar environment.”

“Genstar has been following Telestream closely and this acquisition is consistent with our strategy of investing in vertical market software companies,” said Eli Weiss, a Managing Director of Genstar. Telestream is a leader in its market and has posted profitable growth since its founding. As even more content is generated and viewed on more devices, we believe the company will continue its demonstrated growth trajectory, and we will support Telestream’s experienced and successful management team to expand organic growth via new product releases and pursue add-on acquisitions.”

The deal is expected to close in mid-January 2015.

Genstar’s acquisition of Telestream is the latest in a series of deals related to online video and transcoding.

As broadcasters and media companies scramble to deploy multi-screen services, transcoding is seen by many as a key technology. As a result, transcoding has also attracted its fair share of financing and M&A activity. Here’s a quick run-down of some of the recent transcoding deals and related-financial news:

In April 2014, Imagine Communications acquired Digital Rapids for an undisclosed amount

In April 2014, Dalet acquired Amberfin for an undisclosed amount

In January 2013, Amazon unveiled its “Amazon Elastic Transcoder.” Based on the company’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing platform, the Elastic Transcoder the service provides “a highly scalable, easy to use and a cost-effective way for developers and businesses to transcode video files from their source format into versions that will playback on devices like smartphones, tablets and PCs.”

In August 2012 Brightcove bought Zencoder, a 2-year old start-up with $2m in revenue for $30m, and subsequently launched a cloud based transcoding service at IBC 2012

However, the company did make some provocative statements about the market, competitive vendors, and broadcast industry M&A.

According to Telestream “market forces have driven recent corporate acquisitions, and some of these companies were struggling to survive. As a result, there are new combined companies, new management, and typically, new strategies. One of the likely victims during these transitions are customers who may have purchased products from one of these companies only to learn that a change of direction has resulted in product decisions that impact the original cost of ownership that was part of the initial purchase decision.”

“Based on our own experience of acquiring companies, we know that they have to be implemented carefully and strategically,” said Castles. “Owning a new piece of intellectual property does not mean that you understand the market it serves nor that it will integrate harmoniously within your existing product portfolio. We believe we are the right size as a company – not large and unwieldy, but not so small that we have to chase deals to remain in business. Our customers know we listen to their input as they see new products consistently coming to market that reflect their requirements. Implied in that equation is a level of trust that we will be around for years to come and that investing in products from Telestream is a smart decision long term.”

“Telestream offers its customers a very clear proposition,” said Castles. “We were one of the first companies to develop file-based workflow solutions as long ago as 1998 and today, our products reflect many hundreds of man years of development in this area. We are financially very solid and this has allowed us to stick to our strategies and not be tempted to chase opportunities that may bring in short term results, but distract us in the long term from executing on what we have committed to customers. We are very relevant to our customer base, and we take that role extremely seriously.”

After months of data collection, analysis, and visualization, we have now completed work on the 2014 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS). Reports from this study have now been published and are available from Devoncroft Partners.

If you’re not familiar with the BBS, it’s the most comprehensive annual study of technology end-users in the global broadcast industry. Nearly 10,000 broadcast professionals in 100+ countries participated in the 2014 BBS, making it once again the largest market study of the broadcast industry.

BBS reports have been designed to help readers improve their strategic decision-making, customer engagement, marketing strategy, product planning, and sales execution. BBS reports are also used frequently for M&A-related activities by both buyers and sellers.

.

Three types of 2014 BBS reports are available:

2014 BBS Global Brand Reports: provides deep insight into how each more than 100 broadcast technology suppliers (see full list below) are perceived by market participants, along with comprehensive benchmarking of broadcast technology vendors on a wide variety of metrics.

2014 BBS Global Market Report: provides detailed information about industry trends, major projects being planned, products being evaluated for purchase, current and future plant infrastructure, broadcast technology CapEx budgets, and planned deployment of new technologies including 4K, Connected TV, and Social TV.

.

If you would like information about these reports and how they can help your business, please get in touch.

In addition to these paid-for reports, we will also be publishing highlights from the 2014 BBS on the Devoncroft website. These articles will be posted on a semi-regular basis, so please check back often.

To receive posts when they are published, just enter your email in the box in the upper right-hand corner of the page.

The tables below show the product categories and broadcast technology vendor brands covered in the 2014 BBS.

According to public records, for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2013 AmberFin posted a net loss before tax of £1.18m on revenue of £4.58m.

Once the deal closes, the combined company will have revenues in excess of $55m.

Datlet says the acquisition of AmberFin significantly broadens the company’s product offerings, and “affirms the company’s dominance in MAM and media workflow management by creating end-to-end solutions that include comprehensive MAM capabilities along with state-of-the art image processing, media transcoding and distribution.”

“This acquisition allows us to offer the industry the most advanced level of workflow options.” said Dalet CEO David Lasry. “AmberFin has been at the forefront in mastering media, including transcoding and video quality control. The company has spearheaded many widely adopted industry standards such as MXF and AS-02. Its talent and expertise directly complement Dalet’s strengths in enterprise MAM-driven solutions. By melding our resources and innovative technologies, we can enrich both the Dalet and AmberFin products to offer the most complete and forward-thinking solutions for content providers to optimize their human resources and media assets. From ingest through multiplatform delivery, operators in News, Sports and Programming will reap tremendous efficiencies and productivity by applying our combined technologies.”

“I am extremely proud of the AmberFin team and its accomplishments. Our award-winning, cutting-edge products are used by prominent broadcasters, content owners and post-production houses around the globe,” comments Jeremy Deaner, CEO of AmberFin. “It’s very gratifying to know that by joining with Dalet, we can together leverage our best-in-class technologies to deliver an outstanding array of solutions that will meet the challenges of the constantly changing digital media landscape.”

Transcoding Consolidation Continues

Dalet’s acquisition is the latest in a series of deals and product announcements in the transcoding space. As broadcasters and media companies scramble to deploy multi-screen services, transcoding is seen by many as a key technology. As a result, transcoding has also attracted its fair share of financing and M&A activity. Here’s a quick run-down of some of the recent transcoding deals and related-financial news:

In January 2013, Amazon unveiled its “Amazon Elastic Transcoder.” Based on the company’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing platform, the Elastic Transcoder the service provides “a highly scalable, easy to use and a cost effective way for developers and businesses to transcode video files from their source format into versions that will playback on devices like smartphones, tablets and PCs.”

In August 2012 Brightcove bought Zencoder, a 2-year old start-up with $2m in revenue for $30m, and subsequently launched a cloud based transcoding service at IBC 2012

This is the ninth in a series of articles about some of the findings from Devoncroft’s 2013 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS), a global study of broadcast industry trends, technology purchasing plans, and benchmarking of broadcast technology vendor brands. Nearly 10,000 broadcast professionals in 100+ countries took part in the 2013 BBS, making it the largest and most comprehensive market study ever conducted in the broadcast industry.

.

This is the fifth post in a series of articles about how broadcast technology vendors were ranked and benchmarked on a variety of metrics by the respondents to the 2013 BBS.

This article follows on from the 2013 BBS Broadcast Technology Vendor Innovation League Table, by focusing on one of the most important metrics for any technology company – Quality.

2013 Broadcast Technology Vendor Quality Rankings

The broadcast prides itself on the fidelity of its sound and images, the perception of quality is a very important metric for broadcast technology vendors.

Many vendors use quality as one of the key components of their market positioning. Likewise, many end-users include technical performance and quality as a part of their procurement strategies.

The table below shows the 2013 BBS Broadcast Technology Vendor Quality League Table, which shows the top 30 ranked brands for “Quality” by 2013 BBS respondents.

An explanation of how these results were calculated can be found at the end of this article.

.Please note that both audio and video brands are included in these rankings, and that the table below shown brands in alphabetical order, NOT in the order in which they were ranked in the study.

.

.

This list contains a broad mix of vendors including large and small firms; single product and multi-product firms; global and regional players; and audio and video technology providers.

Given the diversity of the vendors in this list, it’s worth asking whether factors such as organization size, breadth of product range, geography, or technology impact the perception of quality.

Since the ultimate manifestation of quality is in the actual product delivered to end-users, it’s useful to understand what products are produced by the vendors on this list, and whether this has an impact on the perception of quality.

The top three products in the 2013 BBS Broadcast Technology Vendor Quality League Table are audio products – Microphones, Audio Mixing Consoles, and Speakers.

This is an interesting data point. Although there are 30 product categories included in the 2013 BBS, only five are directly related to audio. Yet, the top three product categories in the 2013 BBS Quality rankings are audio products. Why are audio brands so prevalent in these rankings?

One possibility is that for many people, audio is all about the quality and fidelity of the sound. Thus quality is the ultimate metric for audio brands. Indeed, our research consistently shows that many pure-play audio companies have extremely high quality ratings.

Another thing to consider is that (as mentioned above in bold), the rankings posted on this website always contain both audio and video brands. Since there are fewer audio brands in the study, there may be a higher concentration of responses per brand on a relative basis when an audio professional responds to the survey.

Another issue is that the top 3 ranked product categories Microphones, Audio Mixing Consoles, and Speakers – are typically found in high-profile environments, and particularly in real-time or live environments where there are not always second chances to re-do a show, event, or recording.

Interestingly, the same can be said for many of the video-oriented products in the above chart.

Video products including cameras, production switchers, and video editing are typically found in live production or mission-critical studio applications. And the primary function of many test & measurement products, which are also produced by three of the brands in the 2013 BBS Broadcast Technology Vendor Quality League Table, is to measure quality and fidelity.

Many of these products tend to be high ticket items that are produced by the industry’s larger vendors. This begs the question of whether organization size plays a role in the perception of quality. Larger companies often have a broader product offering, but does this translate into a higher perception of quality?

The table below examines the correlation between size of vendor / product range and the market’s perception of quality, by showing the number of product categories (as defined by the 2013 BBS segmentation) offered by each brand listed in this ranking.

.

.

Sure enough, the vendors at the top of this chart are larger vendors that provide multiple product lines.

Having said that, the majority of the vendors in the 2013 BBS Broadcast Technology Vendor Quality League Table are single product category companies (as defined by the 2013 BBS segmentation).

This shows that specialist vendors, whether large or small, who have expertise in a particular areas of technology are often able stand out from the rest of the market, including vendors who may be much larger.

The following six brands were listed in the 2012 BBS Broadcast Technology Vendor Quality League Table, but are not listed in the 2013 rankings:

Clear-Com, Dolby, Isilon Systems/EMC, Mackie, Panasonic, Wheatstone

.

How These Results Were Calculated

Based on how they answered a series of screening questions in the 2013 BBS were answered, relevant brands were algorithmically determined for each research participant. Each 2013 BBS participant was then asked to rank a variety of relevant broadcast technology vendor brands for “Quality” on a scale of 1-10 — with 10 being best in the market, and 1 being worst in the market.

Global response data from all BBS respondents was then aggregated and averaged in order to generate a global “Quality Score” for each brand based on these responses.

The brands with the top 30 scores for quality were then included in this ranking table. These brands were then sorted by alphabetical order to create the tables shown in this article.

The inclusion of any brand in the tables in this article is dependent on available sample size. The minimum sample size for inclusion in the tables shown herein is 30 respondents per cut of the data. Therefore it is possible that a highly regarded brand may have been excluded from any or all of the tables in this article due to insufficient sample size.

Both audio and video brands are included in the calculation of the rankings in this article, whereas these brands are typically separated in actual BBS reports. The inclusion of both audio and video brands may have a significant impact on the vendor brands included in these rankings.

All data these charts are presented in alphabeticalorder, NOT in the order brands were ranked by respondents to the 2013 BBS.

.

The information in this article is based on select findings from the 2013 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS), a global study of broadcast industry trends, technology purchasing plans, and benchmarking of broadcast technology vendor brands. Nearly 10,000 broadcast professionals in 100+ countries took part in the 2013 BBS, making it the largest and most comprehensive market study ever conducted in the broadcast industry. The BBS is published annually by Devoncroft Partners.

Unless otherwise specified, all data in this article measures the responses of all non-vendor participants in the 2013 BBS, regardless of factors such as organization type, organization size, job title, purchasing and geographic location. Please be aware that responses of individual organization types or geographic locations may be very different. Granular analysis of these results is available as part of various paid-for reports based on the 2013 BBS data set. For more information about this report, please contact Devoncroft Partners.

Transcoding and workflow vendor Telestream announced that it has acquired Computer Prompting and Captioning (CPC).

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

CPC, which has about 10 employees according to an article in the Sacramento Business Journal, provides captioning technologies for a variety of professional applications. The company was founded in 1986 by Dilip. Som and Sid Hoffman and has a long history of innovation.

Telestream says the CPC deal will bring it “deep expertise in captioning, which will benefit the company’s current and long term product strategies.” Telestream also says that its transcoding, workflow automation, live streaming and web publishing products will all benefit from the addition of CPC’s technology.

“CPC is a recognized leader in captioning for television and the Web, whose customers include media and entertainment companies, educational institutions, and houses of worship,” said Telestream founder and CEO Dan Castles. “Our customers at all levels need tools to author and distribute captioning in a more integrated way. This is a natural extension of what we do, and we look forward to integrating CPC’s world-class technology into all of our products.”

Live and near-live video programming must be captioned on the Internet if it is shown on TV with captions (as of March 31, 2013)

Pre-recorded video programming that is substantially edited for the Internet must be captioned if it is shown on TV with captions on or after September 30, 2013.

These regulations puts tremendous pressure on broadcasters, media companies, and content owners – and therefore provides opportunities for technology vendors like Telestream and Miranda who have snapped up providers of these solutions.

This is the eighth in a series of articles about some of the findings from Devoncroft’s 2013 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS), a global study of broadcast industry trends, technology purchasing plans, and benchmarking of broadcast technology vendor brands. Nearly 10,000 broadcast professionals in 100+ countries took part in the 2013 BBS, making it the largest and most comprehensive market study ever conducted in the broadcast industry.

.

This is the fourth post in a series of articles about how broadcast technology vendors were ranked and benchmarked on a variety of metrics by the respondents to the 2013 BBS.

This post looks at one of the most important metrics for any technology company – innovation.

An explanation of how these results were calculated can be found at the end of this article.

The product side of the film & broadcast industry is driven by technology and innovation. All vendors spend heavily on research and development in order to create advanced technologies that make their products stand out from the competition. Thus innovation is a very important component of the brand image and reputation of vendors in this space.

Please note that both audio and video brands are included in these rankings, and that the table below shown brands in alphabetical order, NOT in the order in which they were ranked in the study.

There are a wide variety of companies on this list, including large and small firms; single product and multi-product firms; global and regional players; and audio and video technology providers.

Let’s look specifically at the how these companies and their products were ranked in the 2013 BBS, beginning with products and technology.

As shown in the chart below, these companies make products in 22 of the 30 product categories that we covered in the 2013 BBS.

.

The top offerings provided by brands in the 2013 BBS Broadcast Technology Vendor Innovation League Table are production switchers, pro audio products, and test and measurement.

Does company size play a role in innovation? Larger companies offer more products and are consequently used in more places than their smaller counterparts. But this does not necessarily translate into innovation.

The chart below breaks down the 2013 BBS Broadcast Technology Vendor Innovation League Table by the number of product categories (as defined by the 2013 BBS segmentation) offered by each brand listed in this ranking.

.

.

What’s interesting about these rankings is that it includes the largest brands in the industry such as Cisco, Sony and Panasonic, alongside smaller (and relatively new) companies such as Elemental Technologies and Phabrix.

It’s also interesting to note that just under one-third of the companies listed in the 2013 BBS Broadcast Technology Vendor Innovation League Table, are pure-play audio vendors.

There are also quite a few software companies including Adobe, Autodesk, Elemental, Telestream, and Vizrt.

Another thing to note is that this ranking is once again dominated by companies that provide products in a single product category – 19 out of 30 brands in this list (up from 18 in 2012). This suggests that focused companies who apply their efforts to specialist product areas are often able to generate more innovation in the eyes of the market.

At the same time, larger companies are also represented on this list of the broadcast industry’s top innovators. Sony and Snell provide products in the most categories in the 2013 BBS Broadcast Technology Vendor Innovation League Table, followed by Adobe, Blackmagic, and Panasonic.

Of course, companies are listed here based on how many 2013 BBS product categories they produce, which is not an absolute measure of the products offered be each vendor on this list. There are some very large companies on the list above who appear in just one 2013 BBS category.

.

Year-Over-Year Changes to BBS Innovation Rankings

The majority of vendors in the 2013 BBS Broadcast Technology Vendor Innovation League Table were also listed in this ranking last year.

The following new entrants to the BBS Broadcast Technology Vendor Innovation League Table are listed in 2013 but were not listed last year:

Elemental Technologies, Leader, Telestream, Yamaha

The following brands were listed in the 2012 BBS Broadcast Technology Vendor Innovation League Table, but are not listed this year:

Angenieux, Mackie, Omneon, Salzbrenner Stagetec, T-VIPS

.

How These Results Were Calculated

2013 BBS participants were asked to provide their perception of the innovation of a variety of relevant broadcast technology vendor brands on a scale of 1-10 — with 10 being best in the market, and 1 being worst in the market.

This data was then aggregated and averaged in order to generate the global score for each brand based on these responses.

The top 30 global brands for innovation were then sorted by alphabetical order to create the tables shown in this article.

When reviewing this information, please note the following:

The inclusion of any brand in the tables in this article is dependent on available sample size. The minimum sample size for inclusion in the tables shown herein is 30 respondents per cut of the data. Therefore it is possible that a highly regarded brand may have been excluded from any or all of the tables in this article due to insufficient sample size.

Both audio and video brands are included herein, whereas these brands are typically separated in actual BBS reports.

All data these charts are presented in alphabeticalorder, NOT in the order brands were ranked by respondents to the 2013 BBS.

.

The information in this article is based on select findings from the 2013 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS), a global study of broadcast industry trends, technology purchasing plans, and benchmarking of broadcast technology vendor brands. Nearly 10,000 broadcast professionals in 100+ countries took part in the 2013 BBS, making it the largest and most comprehensive market study ever conducted in the broadcast industry. The BBS is published annually by Devoncroft Partners.

Unless otherwise specified, all data in this article measures the responses of all non-vendor participants in the 2013 BBS, regardless of factors such as organization type, organization size, job title, purchasing and geographic location. Please be aware that responses of individual organization types or geographic locations may be very different. Granular analysis of these results is available as part of various paid-for reports based on the 2013 BBS data set. For more information about this report, please contact Devoncroft Partners.

This is the sixth in a series of articles about some of the findings from Devoncroft’s 2013 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS), a global study of broadcast industry trends, technology purchasing plans, and benchmarking of broadcast technology vendor brands. Nearly 10,000 broadcast professionals in 100+ countries took part in the 2013 BBS, making it the largest and most comprehensive market study ever conducted in the broadcast industry.

This post looks at how the global sample of broadcast professionals who participated in the 2013 BBS ranked their Net Change of Overall Opinion of the 151 broadcast technology vendors we covered in the study.

Net Change of Overall Opinion

While it’s good news for any vendor to achieve a good “overall opinion” ranking, this metric is somewhat one-sided because it relies solely on the positive opinions of respondents.

In order to get a better understanding of how broadcast technology vendor brands are perceived, it is necessary to look at both the positive and negative opinions of brands. It is also necessary to take into account how these opinions have changed over time.

Once this information has been collected, we use it to create the Net Change of Overall Opinion Ranking, a metric that demonstrates which brands are perceived as getting better, and which are in decline, on an overall basis. Net Change in Overall Opinion provides a more balanced view each brand because it takes into account both the positive and negative perceptions of brands, along with how these opinions have changed over time.

An explanation of how these results were calculated can be found at the end of this article.

The Net Change in Overall Opinion findings from the 2013 BBS are shown below in two ways:

An overall industry “league table” that shows the 30 highest ranked vendors for the metric “Net Change of Overall Opinion.” The data in this chart is broken out globally and regionally.

An analysis of the “frequency” of appearance of each vendor in the Net Change of Overall Opinion league table

The top 30 ranked brands for Net Change of Overall Opinion are shown below for both the global sample of all respondents as well as for all respondents in each of the geographic regions.

When reading these results, please keep the following in mind.

Both audio and video brands are included in these rankings, and all response data shown herein is from the global sample of from all 2013 BBS participants, regardless of organization type, size, geographic location, or size of budget; and that actual results in the BBS Brand report may be different.

Please note that inclusion of any brand in any cut of the data shown the tables in this article is dependent on available sample size. The minimum sample size for inclusion in these charts is 30 respondents per cut of the data. Therefore it is possible that a highly regarded brand was excluded from these findings based on sample size.

In all cases, these results are shown in alphabetical order, NOT in the order in which they were ranked by respondents to the study.

The 2013 BBS Net Change in Overall Opinion League Table:

A total of 53 broadcast technology vendor brands are included in this table (versus 59 in 2012 and 51 in 2011), illustrating the geographic variation of opinion. Analysis of these results shows that are some clear market leaders on a global basis, while others are strong on a regional basis.

It’s useful to understand how often each brand appears in the 2013 BBS Net Change in Overall Opinion League Table.

This is shown below, along with the equivalent data from both 2012 and 2011 for comparison.

Frequency of appearance of brands in the 2013 BBS Net Change in Overall Opinion League Table:

10 brands appear four times (compared to 9 brands in 2012 and 13 brands in 2011), meaning they were ranked in the top 30 globally and in each geographic region

13 brands appear three times (compared to 13 brands in 2012 and 10 brands in 2011)

11 brands appear two times (compared to 11 brands in 2012 and 9 brands in 2011)

19 brands appear one time (compared to 26 brands in 2102 and 19 brands in 2011). This illustrates a fragmentation of opinion about many brands based on geography

.

Brands appearing four times in the 2013 BBS Net Change of Overall Opinion League Table:

Frequency Analysis of the Brands in the in the 2013 BBS Net Change of Overall Opinion League Table:

In order to provide a better understanding of which brands were most highly ranked in each geographic region, the data has been provided in the table below, which shows the global and regional performance for each brand in the top 30 ranking of overall opinion.

.

.

This frequency analysis chart shows that there are some interesting geographic variations in the data. Here’s a closer look at how brands appeared by geography:

Appearing only in the global ranking of the 2013 BBS Net Change of Overall Opinion League Table

Four brands achieved a top 30 ranking in the 2013 BBS Net Change of Overall Opinion league table, despite not being listed in the top 30 of any of the three geographic regions. This may be a function of sample size. As discussed above, there is a minimum sample size requirement for inclusion in each cut of the data presented in these chart, and the global ranking, by definition, has the largest overall sample.

Ensemble, On-Air Systems, Ooyala, Xen Data

Appearing only in one region of the 2013 BBS Net Change of Overall Opinion League Table

The following brands appear in one regional category of the 2013 BBS Net Change of Overall Opinion League Table, but do not appear in the global ranking:

Appearing only in the Americas region in the 2013 BBS Net Change of Overall Opinion League Table

Telecast, T-VIPS, Wheatstone

.

How These Results Were Calculated

No company is perfect, and the brands we measured in the 2013 BBS are no different. All brands in the 2013 BBS had both positive (got better) and negative (got worse) connotations associated with them. There were also are significant percentage of respondents who said their opinion of a brand had “stayed the same.”

2013 BBS participants were asked to rank their opinion of broadcast technology vendor brands on a scale of 1-10 — with 10 being best in the market, and 1 being worst in the market.

We then asked respondents whether their opinion of these brands has changed over the last few years – specifically whether they feel their opinion of each brand has “improved,” “declined” or “stayed the same.”

The Net Change in Overall Opinion for each brand was then calculated by subtracting the percentage of respondents who said a brand “got worse” from the percentage of respondents who said their opinion of a brand had “got better,” while ignoring the “stayed the same” responses.

This “change of opinion data” provides a more comprehensive view of how each brand is perceived by the market because it takes into account positive and negative perceptions.

Please note that inclusion of any brand in the tables in this article is dependent on available sample size. The minimum sample size for inclusion in the tables shown herein is 30 respondents per cut of the data. Therefore it is possible that a highly regarded brand may have been excluded from any or all of the tables in this article due to insufficient sample size.

Also, please keep in mind when reviewing this information that all data these charts are presented in alphabeticalorder, NOT in the order brands were ranked by respondents to the 2013 BBS.

.

The information in this article is based on select findings from the 2013 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS), a global study of broadcast industry trends, technology purchasing plans, and benchmarking of broadcast technology vendor brands. Nearly 10,000 broadcast professionals in 100+ countries took part in the 2013 BBS, making it the largest and most comprehensive market study ever conducted in the broadcast industry. The BBS is published annually by Devoncroft Partners.

Unless otherwise specified, all data in this article measures the responses of all non-vendor participants in the 2013 BBS, regardless of factors such as organization type, organization size, job title, purchasing and geographic location. Please be aware that responses of individual organization types or geographic locations may be very different. Granular analysis of these results is available as part of various paid-for reports based on the 2013 BBS data set. For more information about this report, please contact Devoncroft Partners.

If you are in Las Vegas to attend the 2013 NAB Show, you don’t want to miss the second annual “Media Technology: Strategy and Valuation,” conference which is being co-produced by Devoncroft, Silverwood Partners and the organizers of the NAB Show.

This event is free for all registered attendees of the 2013 NAB show.

It is being held in room N239/241 of the Las Vegas Convention Center on Sunday April 7th from 1:45 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

This year’s conference features an intensive, information-packed series of presentations and panels that discuss the strategic trends and industry-specific factors influencing the value of media technology companies.

We’ve worked hard to put together an outstanding line-up of speakers and presenters, including top technology buyers, leading technology vendor CEOs, and private equity investors who will speak to the opportunities and challenges involved with financing the next phase of technology change in the industry.

The agenda will offer attendees the informed opinions of technology purchasers, industry executives, market research organizations, and financial professionals. The event will serve as a thought-provoking kick-off to the 2013 NAB Show.

This session is intended for senior executives from technology vendors, end-users, and investment firms in the media technology sector.

We are expecting 200+ attendees based on the latest registration numbers, so it’s a good networking opportunity as well.

Here’s the conference agenda:

1:45 pm – 1:50 pm

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION

Joe Zaller – President, Devoncroft Partners

1:50 pm – 2:20 pm

NAB SHOW SPROCKIT PRESENTATIONS

Hear from three market-ready start-ups who have been selected by the NAB’s SPROCKIT initiative. This session will include an introduction of the SPROCKIT initiative followed by presentations from three of NAB Show’s inaugural SPROCKIT participants.

Presenter(s):

Hilary DeCesare, Co-Founder and CEO, Everloop

Heidi Messer, Co-Founder & Chairman, Collective[I]

John West, Founder & CEO, The Whistle

2:20 pm – 2:45 pm

THE BROADCAST & MEDIA TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY IN 2013

Joe Zaller will present a summary of key data derived from the newly published 2013 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS), the largest and most comprehensive study of the broadcast industry. Key results from the 2013 BBS will include key investments areas as well as trends of significance that are impacting these purchasing decisions.

Joe Zaller – President, Devoncroft Partners

2:45 pm – 3:10 pm

STRATEGIC INDUSTRY ANALYSIS: VALUATIONS, M&A, AND EQUITY FINANCING

Jonathan Hodson-Walker and Joshua Stinehour of Silverwood Partners will present an analysis of strategic industry trends and the specific factors that affect company valuations, including transaction activity and valuations; vendor strategic considerations; and the current M&A environment along with near-term expectations. Attendees will also learn which businesses are buyers and investors targeting and why.

Presenter(s):

Jonathan Hodson-Walker – Managing Partner, Silverwood Partners

Joshua Stinehour – Managing Director, Silverwood Partners

3:10 pm – 3:35 pm

M&A, VALUATION PERSPECTIVES FROM INDUSTRY EXECUTIVES

Joe Zaller will moderate a panel of three recognized executives at leading vendors will offer views on the critical drivers of value (in context of M&A) in the industry, and discuss the best practices they’ve learned on how to review an acquisition opportunity and how to integrate M&A into overall growth strategies. Obstacles to further industry consolidation will also be discussed.

Moderator:

Joe Zaller – President, Devoncroft Partners

Panelists:

Dan Castle — CEO, Telestream

Harris Morris – CEO, Harris Broadcast

Denis Suggs — Executive Vice President, Belden

3:45 pm – 4:00 pm

IABM END-USER RESEARCH OVERVIEW

Yves Dupuis, Director of Market Intelligence at the IABM (trade association that represents broadcast technology suppliers) will present an overview of the latest end-user research from the IABM, including the changing requirements of broadcast technology buyers, and what this means for the supply community.

Yves Dupuis — Director of Market Intelligence, IABM

4:00 pm – 4:25 pm

THE BROADCAST TECHNOLOGY BUYER PERSPECTIVE

Joe Zaller will guide a discussion with broadcast executives responsible for technology budgets as they ponder the questions of most significance to decisions on technology purchasing: How are savvy broadcasters aligning known technology expenditures against uncertain multi-platform revenue opportunities in order to counteract the ‘consumer-broadcast disconnect’? How are these companies assessing the business risk of technology purchase decisions today given the uncertainty of future business models?

Clyde Smith, FOX Networks Engineering and Operations will offer a broadcast executive’s perspective on the major business issues facing the industry, what major initiatives and projects have been created to solve these issues, a candid assessment of the results of these initiatives, and a discussion of what is still needed from a technology standpoint to address these issues.

Joe Zaller will moderate this panel of private equity professionals who have made recent investments in the media and entertainment space will offer their unique perspectives on trends of significance for the M&E sector. They will also preview their plans for intelligence-gathering at this year’s NAB Show, the trends that are driving investment dollars in the sector, and what characteristics influence their evaluation of an investment opportunity within the M&E industry.

If you are attending the 2013 NAB show, be sure not to miss the second annual “Media Technology: Strategy and Valuation,” conference which is being co-produced by Devoncroft, Silverwood Partners and the organizers of the NAB Show.

This event is being held in room N239/241 of the Las Vegas Convention Center on Sunday April 7th from 1:45 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., and it’s free for all registered attendees of the 2013 NAB show.

This year’s conference features an intensive, information-packed series of presentations and panels that discuss the strategic trends and industry-specific factors influencing the value of media technology companies.

We’ve worked hard to put together an outstanding line-up of speakers and presenters, including top technology buyers, leading technology vendor CEOs, and private equity investors who will speak to the opportunities and challenges involved with financing the next phase of technology change in the industry.

The agenda will offer attendees the informed opinions of technology purchasers, industry executives, market research organizations, and financial professionals. The event will serve as a thought-provoking kick-off to the 2013 NAB Show.

This session is intended for senior executives from technology vendors, end-users, and investment firms in the media technology sector.

Here’s the current lineup of presenters:

1:45 pm – 1:50 pm

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION

Joe Zaller – President, Devoncroft Partners

1:50 pm – 2:20 pm

NAB SHOW SPROCKIT PRESENTATIONS

Hear from three market-ready start-ups who have been selected by the NAB’s SPROCKIT initiative. This session will include an introduction of the SPROCKIT initiative followed by presentations from three of NAB Show’s inaugural SPROCKIT participants.

Presenter(s):

Hilary DeCesare, Co-Founder and CEO, Everloop

Heidi Messer, Co-Founder & Chairman, Collective[I]

John West, Founder & CEO, The Whistle

2:20 pm – 2:45 pm

THE BROADCAST & MEDIA TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY IN 2013

Joe Zaller will present a summary of key data derived from the newly published 2013 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS), the largest and most comprehensive study of the broadcast industry. Key results from the 2013 BBS will include key investments areas as well as trends of significance that are impacting these purchasing decisions.

Joe Zaller – President, Devoncroft Partners

2:45 pm – 3:10 pm

STRATEGIC INDUSTRY ANALYSIS: VALUATIONS, M&A, AND EQUITY FINANCING

Jonathan Hodson-Walker and Joshua Stinehour of Silverwood Partners will present an analysis of strategic industry trends and the specific factors that affect company valuations, including transaction activity and valuations; vendor strategic considerations; and the current M&A environment along with near-term expectations. Attendees will also learn which businesses are buyers and investors targeting and why.

Presenter(s):

Jonathan Hodson-Walker – Managing Partner, Silverwood Partners

Joshua Stinehour – Managing Director, Silverwood Partners

3:10 pm – 3:35 pm

M&A, VALUATION PERSPECTIVES FROM INDUSTRY EXECUTIVES

Joe Zaller will moderate a panel of three recognized executives at leading vendors will offer views on the critical drivers of value (in context of M&A) in the industry, and discuss the best practices they’ve learned on how to review an acquisition opportunity and how to integrate M&A into overall growth strategies. Obstacles to further industry consolidation will also be discussed.

Moderator:

Joe Zaller – President, Devoncroft Partners

Panelists:

Dan Castle — CEO, Telestream

Harris Morris – CEO, Harris Broadcast

Denis Suggs, Executive Vice President, Belden

3:45 pm – 4:00 pm

IABM END-USER RESEARCH OVERVIEW

Peter White, Director General IABM will present an overview of the latest end-user research from the IABM, including the changing requirements of broadcast technology buyers, and what this means for the supply community.

Peter White — Director General, IABM

4:00 pm – 4:25 pm

THE BROADCAST TECHNOLOGY BUYER PERSPECTIVE

Joe Zaller will guide a discussion with broadcast executives responsible for technology budgets as they ponder the questions of most significance to decisions on technology purchasing: How are savvy broadcasters aligning known technology expenditures against uncertain multi-platform revenue opportunities in order to counteract the ‘consumer-broadcast disconnect’? How are these companies assessing the business risk of technology purchase decisions today given the uncertainty of future business models?

Clyde Smith, FOX Networks Engineering and Operations will offer a broadcast executive’s perspective on the major business issues facing the industry, what major initiatives and projects have been created to solve these issues, a candid assessment of the results of these initiatives, and a discussion of what is still needed from a technology standpoint to address these issues.

Joe Zaller will moderate this panel of private equity professionals who have made recent investments in the media and entertainment space will offer their unique perspectives on trends of significance for the M&E sector. They will also preview their plans for intelligence-gathering at this year’s NAB Show, the trends that are driving investment dollars in the sector, and what characteristics influence their evaluation of an investment opportunity within the M&E industry.